Progressive Eugenics
Charles Johnson
Sat Sep 15, 2007 at 6:34 pm PDT • Views: 784
What’s up with these wacademic studies intended to prove that “liberals” are better in every way than “conservatives?” Are there really people who actually believe this crap?
William Saletan has a beautiful takedown of the “progressive” version of eugenics: Rigging a study to make conservatives look stupid.
The conservative case against this study is easy to make. Sure, we’re fonder of old ways than you are. That’s in our definition. Some of our people are obtuse; so are some of yours. If you studied the rest of us in real life, you’d find that while we second-guess the status quo less than you do, we second-guess putative reforms more than you do, so in terms of complexity, ambiguity, and critical thinking, it’s probably a wash. Also, our standard of “information” is a bit tougher than the blips and fads you fall for. Sometimes, these inclinations lead us astray. But over the long run, they’ve served us and society pretty well. It’s just that you notice all the times we were wrong and ignore all the times we were right.
In fact, that’s exactly what you’ve done in this study: You’ve manufactured a tiny world of letters, half-seconds, and button-pushing, so you can catch us in clear errors and keep out the part of life where our tendencies correct yours. And now you feel great about yourselves. Congratulations. You haven’t told us much about our way of thinking. But you’ve told us a lot about yours.
UPDATE at 9/16/07 8:07:16 am:
Also see: The Shield of Achilles: Everyone knows that Democrats are smarter than Republicans? Right?
Frank says: